Bartram Trail presses its way to second straight final four

The Pirates didn’t think it would lead to what transpired Saturday night: 31 turnovers, an insurmountable double-digit deficit and a season-ending 56-48 home loss in the Class 5A regional finals.

“You wanna get to Lakeland,” Pasco coach Troy Moore said, “you’ve gotta understand that pressure’s gonna be there in these type of games.”

Madison French scored 18 points to carry the Bears to their second straight appearance in the final four and third in school history.

The Bears finished runner-up last season after falling to Dillard 59-45 in the title game.

Bartram will get another crack at the Panthers, 57-31 winners over Cape Coral, on Friday in the Class 5A state semifinals in Lakeland.

“It was just a huge team effort,” Bartram coach Ben Windle said. “We had so many kids step up tonight. Sam Terrano stepped into the starting lineup and played terrific defense. ... We had a junior varsity player step in and get minutes. It makes me super proud. We talk about team a lot and tonight was really a great example of that.”

Sarah Ragland added 15 points for the Bears (22-7), while Kelsey Chisholm had 10 and Kaitlin King added seven. The Bears were playing without standout guard Brooke Barlow, who missed the game with a concussion.

Still, Bartram managed to spread the ball around and follow the postseason formula that has worked so well the past two years.

Pasco (23-2) prepared for the Bears’ nonstop pressure by trying to bring the ball up the court against seven defenders in practice, but even that wasn’t enough for Bartram Trail’s tall ball hawkers. The Bears forced three turnovers in the first three minutes, and the Pirates ended the first quarter with more turnovers (nine) than points (eight). Pasco gave the ball away 19 times in the next two quarters to fall behind 41-30.

“The pressure, it shocked us,” Moore said, “It seemed like they were everywhere.”

Pasco turned up its defense in the second half, too. It clawed back into the game by forcing 17 turnovers in the final two quarters.

As Windle pointed out to his team after the game, out of the 32 teams playing in the final four, only two are district runner-ups.

“This group is so resilient,” Windle said. “All season long they’ve never let anything get to them.”

Windle also said he expects Bartram to fare better against Dillard this time around.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity,” he said. “There’s some familiarity there with us and Dillard so I think that can help.”

A steal and layup by Pasco junior Allahon Marbra with 2:19 left cut Bartram Trail’s lead to 48-44. Marbra, who finished with 15 points and four steals, had a chance to make it a one-possession game a minute later, but Brianca Roberts’ pass went off her fingertips and bounced out of bounds.

Roberts finished with a game-high 19 points for the Pirates, who got 10 rebounds and six points from Ashley Webster and six more points from Tranisha Harmon.